Country claims it has no history of recognizing persecuted Muslim group, as refugees suffer in camps

Pope Francis places his hand on the head of a Rohingya girl, one of the refugees who met with the pontiff during the interfaith meeting in Dhaka on Dec. 1. (Photo by Joe Torres/ucanews.com)

Myanmar is stepping up its offensive against Rohingya Muslims, thousands of whom have fled overseas from what they claim is persecution at the hands of the military, which says the group does not officially exist within its borders.

The Buddhist-majority country refuses to recognize the term, seeing the ethnic group instead as illegal migrant "Bengalis."

Tin Aye, a former general and lawmaker from the military-linked Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP), pressed the government of State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 5 to relay that message to the world.

Thein Swe, the minister for labor, immigration and population, appeared to support Tin Aye's argument by telling Myanmar's Lower House the term "Rohingya" has never appeared on any of the country's census lists featuring 135 ethnic groups.

Moreover, it is not used in state-owned and private media, he said.

The use of the word has become a sensitive subject in Myanmar in recent months.

When Pope Francis flew to the country's capital Naypyidaw in late November to meet with army chiefs and other officials there he refrained from using it throughout the duration of his trip.

But on the next leg of his journey in neighboring Bangladesh, the pontiff spoke up for the Rohingya, who have accused Myanmar of launching an ethnic cleansing campaign against them.

Myanmar diplomats and some UN bodies have also chosen to avoid using the provocative term, and have protested its usage by others.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the US embassy in Yangon to refrain from using it in April 2016 when the embassy posted a message of condolence after a boat sank off the country's coast, killing over 20 people.

Neither the previous, military-backed government nor the current National League for Democracy (NLD) will recognize the legitimacy of the group despite vast numbers of Rohingya having lived in Myanmar for decades, critics say.

Yet historical records suggest the regime is trying to gloss over some episodes where its leaders have directly mentioned the long-suffering group.

Myanmar's first independent prime minister, U Nu, used the term in a radio speech broadcast in September 1954 when he spoke warmly of the Rohingya as "national brethren."

Kyaw Min, chairman of Democracy and Human Rights, a Yangon-based Rohingya party, said the group has no future in Myanmar as the situation is worsening for it under the government of Suu Kyi, a former Nobel peace laureate whose reputation has taken a hammering due to her silence on the refugee crisis.

Kway Min said the Rohingya have not been allowed to vote in elections, were unable to move freely across the country and have had scant access to healthcare and education for much of the last 70 years.

They are now facing even greater levels of oppression, he added.

"The previous and current governments have said repeatedly that we are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and they are attempting to erase [our] history. So what can we do?" Kyaw Min told ucanews.com.

Emotive terms

Suu Kyi has been criticized for not speaking out on behalf of the Rohingya or explaining how the country's relatively new leadership intends to protect the rights of the Muslim minority.

The government, which took office two years ago after decades of military rule, is now mulling whether to use the term "Muslims in Rakhine State."

In June 2016, the Ministry of Information instructed state media not to use the terms "Rohingya" or "Bengalis" but to adopt this and "Buddhists in Rakhine State" to describe local people in the state.

The NLD government has not made an official announcement of the presence of the Muslim minority in Myanmar despite former president Thein Sein stating that the Rohingya "do not exist" and should be referred to exclusively as "Bengalis."

Suu Kyi has only referred to them as "Muslims in Rakhine" in her speeches despite state media using the term Bengalis.

During her meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in May 2016, she said the terms Rohingya and Bengali should not be used because they are divisive and "emotive" words that do not help resolve the conflict.

Nyan Win, a member of the NLD's central executive committee (CEC), highlighted the group's omission from past and current census lists.

"In my view, why can we not tell the world there is no such race in the country, as the Rohingya have never existed here?" he told ucanews.com.

Church walks diplomatic tightrope

Catholic bishops urged Pope Francis to avoid using the word Rohingya during his visit there last year and some critics applauded him for not stirring up a hornet's and alienating the regime's leadership.

Cardinal Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, who advocates for minority rights, also gave the pontiff a last-minute suggestion to skip over the sensitive term so as not to trigger a backlash from nationalist groups.

Cardinal Bo, the only Catholic leader who has repeatedly used the word Rohingya in his statements and speeches, also went quiet on the matter prior to the pope's visit.

However he said recently that about 600,000 members of the Rohingya Muslim minority will probably never return to the country as hate speech and propaganda by the Buddhist majority have become commonplace.

He referred to a recent comment by a member of the country's parliament claiming they do not feature in Myanmar's official history.

Kyaw Nyunt, an associate pastor of Judson Church in Yangon, said the term was "invented" in the early 1950s and was not used under British rule.

Having served on the Rakhine Investigation Commission, set up in 2012 under Thein Sein, he told ucanews.com that "the government really needs to tell the world the term Rohingya has never really existed."

He said the international community, including several Islamic nations, is only making the crisis worse by emphasizing the use of the term.

Identity under siege

Kyaw Hla Aung lives in the Thetkaepyin refugee camp near Sittwe. He said the Rohingya are facing unprecedented levels of religious discrimination and oppression.

"The government can do whatever it wants as it controls all the power but we don't have a voice so we can't do anything," he told ucanews.com.

According to some historians, the word Rohingya simply means "inhabitant of Rohang" — the early Muslim name for Arakan, a formerly independent kingdom situated where Rakhine now lies.

The Rakhine Social Network in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State, is even rejecting the use of the phrase "Muslims in Rakhine State."

Hatred and bigotry toward the persecuted minority have deep roots in Rakhine, where hardline groups led by senior Buddhist monks such as the Ma Ba Tha have spearheaded a resurgence of nationalist outpouring in recent years.

Over 120,000 Rohingya Muslims have been forced to live in squalid camps with what critics decry as apartheid-like conditions since 2012 when a spate of anti-Muslim violence claimed the lives of scores of the group.

More than 690,000 Rohingya have crossed the border into Bangladesh following a military crackdown in Rakhine in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security posts on Aug. 25 last year.

Newsletter

Get the latest from La Croix International. Sign up to receive our daily newsletter.

SUPPORT LA CROIX INTERNATIONAL’S COMMUNITY OF READERS

Support La Croix International's unique blend of international Catholic journalism by making it available to people in Asia and Africa who can't afford a subscription and often don't have credit cards to pay for it either.